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http://www.archive.org/details/emperorbidsfarewOOtuel 



THE 



EMPEROR BIDS FAREWELL 



TO 



Ad: o s c o Av . 



'Woi'ds of the Enaperoi- ilSTiclxolas, of Russia, Sent 
by Telegi*aph. from St. IPetersbiarf^:!!, to his Fa- 
vorite City of ]VEoscow, during the Siege of 
Sevastopol, a few ]V[inutes "before his 
Death. 



1/ 

By J. E. TUEL. 



Author of " An Historical Analysis of the Eastern War," " A Biographical Sketch of 

the Emperor Nicholas,", " The Illustrated History of the War in Italy," " A 

Review of the Diplomatic Policy of the Mexican War," &c. , &c. 



^ftVOFCOJIS^^ 



NEW YORK. 
JAMES A. aiLBERT. 



- ,7r 3 6 ^ 



: Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1867, by 

JAMES A. GILBERT, 

In the Clei-k's Office of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of 

New York. 



TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, 

ALEXANDEKII. 

EI\IPEROR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS, 

THE HEREDITARY MASTER OF MTFJJONS, 

WHOM HIS SOVEREIGN WILL DECREED 
SHOULD BE FREE ; 

WHO IN BESTOWINCx FREEDOM 
GAVE ALSO TO THE WORLD 

THE SOLITARY EXAMPLE 

OF A GREAT R U L E E 

CONFERRING ITS SACRED BOON WITHOUT EXACTING 

ITS PRICE IN BLOOD;— 

THE ENLIGHTENED HEAD OF AN EMPIRE 

WHOSK PROGRESS IX FXROPEAX AND EASTERN CIVILIZATION 

IS GUIDED BY JUSTICE TO HIS PEOPLES, 

INTEGRITY TO HIS DOMINIONS, 

AND A AVISE NECESSITY OF ADVANCEMENT, 

WITH THE MONAKCHICAL INTERESTS OF 

WESTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE ; 

WHOSE REMOTE POSSESSIONS IN AJilERICA, 

UNITING TWO EMPIRES, 

(UNTIL RECENTLY, TO EFFECT A MORE ABIDING FRIENDSHIP, 

CEDED BY RUSSIA TO THE UNITED STATES,) 

MET ON ONE CONTINENT, 

And, though opposite in Political Systems, 

Are ALLIES in the Cause of HUMAN PROGRESS, 

ANT) 

AGAINST HUMAN SLAVERY; 

THE ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGN, 

who was a friend to a:\[erican unity and liberty 

W^HEN CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS 

WERE AN ENE]\IY ; 

These Lines, 

Illustrating one of the Grandest subjects 

Of Poetry of ]\Iodekn Times, 

And O^jE of the i\IOST HEROIC in HISTORY 

Are Inscribed by 

AN AMERICAN. 



rn K 
EMPEROR BIDS FAREWELL 

MOSCOW. 



The tire liad closed o'er Held and tiood, 

The Saered City's wails upon,* 
And Alma's clotted, waves were blood, 

And Balak lava's day was won : 
Dead Inkerman's past ages rolled 

Their martial reveille again. 
To see around their ruins old 

Ten thousand Christian warriors slain ;t 
The Turkish guard had barely saved 

Its midnight camp from sudden loss,| 
Where o'er dark Eupatoria waved 

The Crescent, where once stood the Cross. 
France had descended from her creed, 

Her ancient faith — her hate and scorn, 
While England, with each valiant deed, 

Was on her Eagle j^inions borne : 
'Tw^as after many a battle dire 

The Treble Foe had fiercely made, 
And throu2;h the cannon's blazino; tire 

The sword Hashed onward with the spade : 



The l^MPRROR Bids Farewfll to Moscow 



When doubt and dread still goaded on 

The mad assailants of the Tower, 
And midnight's storm and morning's sun 

Impeded not th' infernal shower; 
Worn by disease — subdued in part — 

A World in arms against a Realm, 
The Monarch of the Lion Heai-t 

Met liim whom none can overwhelm. 

11. 

Re-echoing deep the cannon's boom 

O'er Asia's plains— Crimean steppes- — 
'Midst Europe's awe — the Empire's gloom — 

Beyond the Ukraine forest's depths — 
Thro' wild Gircassia's mountain chain. 

To Poland's lands — Siberia's snow — 
From where the Kuban waters reign § - 

To where the Euxine billows flow ; 
To every Capitol and Power — 

Each one an Empire of its own — 
With Chiftains with a Monarch's dower, 

Beneath a Sovereign Monarch's tlirone — ■ 
The doom's proclaimed! — yet not a word, 

Except a parting prayer is heard, 
For all who lived beneath his sword, 

Who reigned with him, beloved and feared ! 

Beyond the storming City's din 

The Monarch laid him down to die, 

Awaiting calm the hour, within 

His Palace Halls — his household by ; 

They mute attend this startling call, 



Thi: luii'i:Rt>R l)ii>.; i'".\j<;.\y i:.i.l 'vu Mo. cow. 

Wliicli, ill its yiiddcn knell ofdcMtli, 
\\\)iil(l ^|)^L^•ui an Enipn'c i'ur ;i p;',!], 

Ilohl witli an i']ni[)iro\s tn'Hihliiii;- hi'oaih ! 

i^'ar t'roni the Neva's Ca])it<)l 

lie sends a message iVaiiglit wiili >.voe, 
FjVv liis pj-oiid Citadel slioiild fall, 

J^elciigued \)\ many a warlike lua : 
A message by the lightning broke 

Upon the sleeping City's ear, 
Wliieh, like the midnight thunder's stroke, 

.Vroused the people far and near I 
Each peal I'oUs o'er a thousand domes, 

E,e-eehoing spires ring forth the knell, 
The Emperor sends to Moscow's honies 

His parting words: " Farewell ! farewell !'' 
And deep the Kremlin churches swell |J 
The dying notes through tolling bell. 
Farewell I farewell ! 

And ere the lightning flash liad died, 
A thousand bells again replied, 

Farewell I farewell I 
St. Michael sounds the dismal notes 
Tliro' iron tongues of brazen throats, 

Farew^ell I farewell I 

Shaking hoar St. Basil's pik. 
From fretted dome to vaulted aisle, 
Its broken voices wail the while, 

Far-ewell ! farewell ! 
And deep again the Kremlin swells, 



The Emperor Bids Farewell to Moscow. 

Along in spectral Citadels, 
Its dismal wails from thousand bells, 
Farewell ! farewell ! 

The Emperor sends to Moscow's homes, 
Her blazoned towers and sacred domes, 
Her Palaces of Sovereigns' tombs, 
Farewell ! farewell ! 

III. 
Along the vaults of warriors laid, 

Beneath the fortressed churches" domes. 
Where stern in death sleeps Ivan's shade 

Beside a line of Monarch's tombs ;% 
Within th' Acropolis of Czars, 

At once (heir cradle and their o^rave. 
Its trophies of Imperial wars, 

Its ramparts strong to guard and save ; 
Amidst its first and rude defence, 

Raised, like a bulwark, 'gainst the tides, 
To drive the bloody billows hence 

That poured in surging, savage tribes ; 
Amidst the bristling towers, roared 

Against the banished Calmuck horde. 
Amidst its thousand temples spared 

From blazing torch and ruthless sword ; 
Amidst its sacred relics old. 

Its rocks of black and whitened stone, 
Its glit'ring mosques and spires of gold, 

Its living tomes of ages gone; — 
From mountains of embattled walls. 

To caverns djeepand dungeons dread,- 



The Emperor Bids Farkwell to Moscow. 

The dying Monarch's summons falls, 
And wakes the slumbers of the dead ! 
The knell re-echoes through each chain 
Of mountain wall to caverned plain, 
And thro' the valleyed vaults again, 

Farewell ! farewell ! 
*' The P^mperor sends to Moscow's tombs, 
Her Sov'reio^ns dead and sa<;red domes. 

His dying knell I '' 
And shrouded shades take up the sound. 
Thro' breaking vault and haunted ground. 

Farewell I farewell I 

And blazoned shields of Ruric Czars 

Resound farewell I 
And trophies of Imperial wars, 

Farewell ! farewell ! 

And with the dismal l)urden swells 
T'he ch(jrus of a thousand bells. 
And througli the spectral Citadels 

The Monarch's dying knell! 
'Whili^ deep again the Kremlin spires 
Ring l)ack the knell ere it expires 
Upon the eying lightning's wires. 

Farewell ! tare we 11 I fn re well I 
Again St. Michael peals the notes 
Thro' iron tongues of brazen throats. 

Farewell ! farewell ! farewell I 

IV. 

The fiery night — the whirlwind day, 
Napoleon's eagles swept along, 



\o The Emperor Bids Farewell to Moscow. 



To cast, 'midst snows, his crowns away, 
And pour an Empire's blood among, 
T.h' invaders sonl, in dread rebound, 

His faithful legions war'd upon, 
And for a vanquished Empire found 
Its conquered hosts within his own : 
Returns again in all its ire, 
This whirlwind day of war and lire. 
Its blasts of Earth and blasts of Heaven, 
." Before whose storms his hosts were driven 
., , Ur left to rise no more ! 

But heeding not the spanless night. 
The Eagle's wings pursued their flight, 
'-The onward march through blood and flame. 
Still onward kept to bugle Fame 

And martial cannon's roar ! 
The thunder peal of lightning war 
Yet w^axiiig faint before his stai-, 

Arid sun of Austerlitz! 
Still blindly rushing to the fate 
Which 'midst the elements await, ' 

Nor heeds nor yet affrights, — 
"The Eagle-guided Gaul flies on, 
Dashed like a meteor 'gainst the sun 
And falls at Moscow's walls ! 
' "The day returns with fearful power 
In blood-stained pile and bleeding tower. 
And mournful night appals ! 
And with that day returns again 

That blood-red sun, whose bannered light 
Had set upon t'ae battle plain - 

Eclipsed by forty years of night. 



The Emperor Bids Farewell to Moscow. i i 



It sunk in lire beyond \]u) West, 

The lightning quenched by Ocean's flood, 
But now it spanned the East ^vith crest. 
Arising from a sea of blood ! 

It rose again 'midst cannon's roar, 
i)ut not resplendent as of yore, 
Its streaming rays no longer bore 

Its flag of A'ictory ! 
It rose, obscnred o'er battle's sky, 
'Midst crimson clouds ascendintr high 
Above the Orient Sea ! 
i " It crossed that Equatorial Line 

Of whirlwind France, thro' blood to shine 

And on the whirlwind goes ! 
An Empire's world revolves around [crowned 
Its blood-stained throne, whose God is 

With tire that from it glows ! 
But as the light distilled from one 
Whose brilliance is tlie Imperial Sun, 
To Night's dependent Crow^n ; 
'""'A light of light that sheds its rays 

From borrowed glare and distant days, 
And not from light its own. 
T/uit SuJi retiirns to ^loscow's sky. 
With all its direful train of woe, 
And with its blaze of war on high 

Arises vegeneanec 'gainst the foe ! , ,- 

.-- . -i- 

Recalling up the buried past 

Froin smould'ring fane and crumbling tower, 
Its days of fire come flowing fast. 

And mingle with the present hour : 



U2! The Emperor. Bids Farewell to Moscow. 



The spot whilom prood armies stood 

With flaming swords 'neath burning domes 
The dying knell descends thro* blood 

Arising from their blazing tombs ; 
For ev^ery spark of lire on high, 

For every drop of blood below, 
Re-kindling torches light the sky, 

R,e-opening wounds begin to flow ! 
From where the invader's foot had trod — 
From where arose the deathless sod — 

Where dying warriors fell, 
Th' re-echoing grounds give back the sound, 
And everv soldier's OTavc around 

Returns the mournful knell ! 

" To Moscow's dead and living hearts, 
Ere from its life my own departs, 

Your Monarch bids farewell ! 
"To all the City's ancient pride, 
To all that claims my Sovereign guide, 

1 bid a last farewell ! 
'*My love to all — my hate to none — 
My faith in God— His will be done — 
1 bow before his awful throne ! 
No more no soul can tell ! 
" One lina-'rino; thoug-ht for those who fall 
Behind the storming City's wall. 

And then a last farewell ! '' 
And minfflino; with the battle's roar 
Along the Euxine's mournful shore — ^ 
'Midst pealing gun and tolling bell. 
The dyinL>* j\lonarcli bade farewell 



Thi: Kmpf.'^or Hio^ b\\RiAVi:i,i. to Moh'ow. 13 

To all liis eartlily power ! 
AV]iil(^ ]\rosco\\V doincs gave back tlio knoll 
l^'roin fortrcssed elmrc.h and citadel, 
And lSeba;^topol's eannon fell 

TTpon the startled ear — 
He fearless met the fearful hour, 

Stretched on his martial hier. 



NOTES. 



* Sacred City — Sebastopol. 

t Inkerinan has been called the " Citi/ of Caverns.'" These excava- 
tions, according to Oliphant and other writers, are supposed to have 
been made by monks during the reigns of the Emperors in the 
middle or latter ages. ' ■ i'erched upon the same cliff, ' says Olipbant. 
" are the ruined walls of an old fort Whether they are tlie remains 
of the Etenus of the ancients, built by Diophantes, Mithridates' 
general, to strengthen the Heraclean Wall, or of the Thcodori of 
the Grreeks, or some Genoese stronghold, is still a very open ques- 
tion. 

X Attack by the Russians on the camp of Kupatoria, on the 17th of 
February, 185.5. 

§ The clref river, which rises in the Caucasus and divides the 
mountain region to the the north from the steppes of Russia and 
forming a circle to the northwest, falls into the Euxine, near Anapa. 

II There are. including the cathedrals thirty-two churches within 
the walls of the Kremlin. Moscow contains in all a number var 
iously estimated from 1.500 to 1,G00. 

^"The Kremlin," says de Custine the French writer upon 
Russia, " is one of the most stupendous edifices in the world. I 
shall never forget the freezing feeling of horror which I ex- 
perienced on first beholding the cradle of the Empire of Modern 
Russia. The Kremlin deserves a visit to Moscow. * '^ The walls 
of the Kremlin they are a chain of mountains. It is saying too 
little to call it a fairy land A kind of Acropolis of the north You 



The FrMPF.ROR P-ids Fari-wiij. to Moscow. 



tremble on approaching- the Kremlir. Towers of all forms: round. 
square, pointed iike arrows, belfries, donjons, tni'rels, videltes, Ihc 
watch towers on tlie minnarets, steeples of every height, of difterent 
colors, styles and dislinction; courts lookouts, cmbateled walls, 
loop holes, machicolations, ramparts fortiticalions of all sorts, 
whimsical fancies, incomprenensible inventions, a Kiosk by the 
side of a Cathedral etc. 

The erection of the Kremlin began in lo()7. It contains there- 
mains of the ancient palace, and also a modern one rebuilt in ISKJ. 
The Cathedral of St. Michael contains the tombs of all tlie Russian 
Sovereigns to the time of Peter the Great. The Kremlin is sur- 
rounded with a M'all from twelve to sixteen feet thick, of heights 
varying from thirty to fifty feet. 

jMadame de Stael called J)tIoscow, the Rome of the North. 

i\OTE.--The cession of Russian America to the United States is 
one of those instances in History where wisdom in diplomacy has 
anticipated the necessity of future wars and strngtheneed the bonds 
of existing peace, it is, in its moral and political bearings, a sig- 
nificant commentar}' upon the present aye of military daiajhier, for 
territoiial acquisitions, in which gigantic and barbarous wars, waged 
by civilized nations fail to effect any results except to sow the seed 
of future harvests of blood. War. failing under such circumstan- 
ces becomes not only the curse which moralists have always regarded 
it,, but in worldly and political morality, a criminal blunder, relieved 
from contempt only by the heroic sacrifice of its victims. Mr Sew- 
ard, in having been mainly instrumental in effecting the cession of 
Russian America, through the co-operation of the able and distin- 
guished representative of the Russian Empire the Baron de Stceckl, 
will have secured to himself in this achievement a crowning honor 
to the many wMch have distinguished his eminent career as the di- 
plomatic head of the United States Government at the most event- 
ful period of its foreign and domestic history. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



OUR NEW NOBILITY! 



SATIRE ON THE FOLLIES AND VICES 



OF THE AGE. 



Bv J. E. Tlkl. 



(now IX PKE8S.) 



Tin's Poem was ori^L^inally published in the Sunday 
Mercury iiiid pronouneed by that able Journal, the most 
compreliensive poetical essay of the aij-e. It was repub- 
lished wiih additions in the United Republic, and extensive- 
ly (juoted in uunierons Journals throniiliont the United States. 
It will be re))ul)lished in a book edition to supply numerous 
applioations toi* the papei's originally containinjj^ it, and which 
ha\e become exhausted. 



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